1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus having a charger that charges a photosensitive drum.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus is known that irradiates a charged photosensitive drum with laser light, thereby forms an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum, transfers a developer image formed by supplying developer to the electrostatic latent image to paper, and thereby forms an image on the paper.
Such an image forming apparatus includes a charging wire charging the photosensitive drum, and when a voltage is applied to the charging wire, ions are generated around the charging wire, and the ions move in the form of an ion wind toward the photosensitive drum and hit the photosensitive drum, thereby charging the photosensitive drum.
In the image forming apparatus, in the case where an ion wind generated from the charging wire and hitting the photosensitive drum is contaminated by foreign material attached to the photosensitive drum, and if this ion wind flows backward from the photosensitive drum to the charging wire, the foreign material attaches to the charging wire and thereby degrades the charging performance.